This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Mississauga murder: Three deaths, one home, and a mystery — what happened to the Harrisons?

An entire family died on separate occasions in the same house over the past five years. Police are investigating to see if there is a connection.

Peel Police detectives working in forensics and homicide carry bags of evidence from 3635 Pitch Pine Cres. in Mississauga, where all three members of one family have been found dead over the past four years.
(Vince Talotta / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Caleb Harrison's mysterious death was ruled a homicide after the autopsy, results of which Peel Region police have not released.

Bouquets of fresh-cut flowers lean against an old tree in the front yard of the house where the Harrisons lived and died.

They’re there for Caleb, whose body was discovered in his childhood home last Friday morning. Dead at 40, though police are keeping the cause secret.

But the tributes are also for Bridget and Bill, his parents, a healthy couple in their 60s who died a year apart in 2009 and 2010.

Three sudden and unexplained deaths in one family, in one house, in less than five years.

Bill’s cause of death was undetermined. Bridget’s was deemed suspicious. Caleb was killed.

Article Continued Below

It could be a nefarious plot, or a baffling coincidence. Either way, Peel Regional Police are dealing with at least one homicide and a series of very strange events. They are now investigating all three deaths to determine if they are connected.

“We’re looking into absolutely everything,” said Det. Sgt. Randy Cowan, of the Peel homicide squad. “Everybody that had a connection with his life, we want to speak to at some point and just get kind of a good idea of what Caleb was about.”

Detectives are conducting a “complete 360,” delving into his history, which is a complicated one. Terrible things have befallen the Harrisons and others connected to them: an assault conviction, a jail term for a drunk driving death, an abduction and a house fire, to name a few.

Cowan cautioned against drawing connections. “Anything, in absence of an explanation, may seem strange,” he said.

“But there’s obviously some very poignant events that happened to one family.”

Marriage and tragedy

Caleb Harrison was born two weeks before Christmas in 1972; he was Bill and Bridget’s only child. A few years later, the Harrisons purchased the home in Mississauga where they would all spend most of the rest of their lives. Caleb grew up on Pitch Pine Cres., a quiet suburban street with leafy trees and manicured lawns and friendly neighbours.

Bridget, a former stage actress who as a young woman worked at the Stratford Festival, moved on from theatre to excel in the field of education. She worked her way up the ranks as a teacher, principal, superintendent and, later, special assistant to a director of education at the Toronto District School Board. “She was one of the best educators I knew,” said Richard Frise, a close friend and former colleague.

“It’s hard to imagine that there could be somebody out there with a grudge against her,” he said. “Everyone who met Bridget wanted to be a friend of hers.”

Bill, who worked in management at Sobeys before his death, was a jazz lover and an athlete — tall and strong and a picture of good health, according to those who knew him. An obituary described him as an exceptional man, “a strong Black role model” and “the centre and rock of his family and friends.” It referred to Caleb as “the son he adored” and “Bill’s best friend.”

In the year 2000, Caleb moved in with his then-girlfriend Melissa Merritt, according to court filings. She was about 20 years old at the time, and he was 27. The next spring, Merritt gave birth to a baby boy. A daughter came two years later and the couple married in October 2003.

Bridget and Bill relished their roles as Nana and Poppa. Bridget’s email address, according to Frise, began with “nanaharrison.”

Caleb’s relationship with his wife came to an abrupt end in June 2005 after he was charged with domestic assault and jailed for three days, court records from Brampton and Halton Region show. He was later convicted and given a suspended sentence plus two years’ probation.

A month after the assault, Caleb, then 32, went to a keg party in Milton. He was supposed to be the designated driver for a group of friends, but he ended up drinking - a lot - and they refused to ride home with him.

Caleb was heading westbound on Derry Rd., near Fifth Line, when his car crossed into oncoming traffic and slammed head-on into a taxi. The crash killed 44-year-old cab driver Michael Rayment and injured four teenaged passengers. Both vehicles burst into flames after police and bystanders pulled the occupants out.

Caleb was convicted in 2008 of impaired driving causing death and three counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm. A web petition supported by several crash victims and their family members demanded a minimum five-year prison sentence.

The Crown prosecutor asked for a two-year jail term. Caleb's lawyer argued for no time behind bars, describing his client as remorseful, rehabilitated and a devoted father.

In the end, a judge gave Caleb 18 months in jail and took away his licence for two years. He began serving his time in the spring of 2009, when his kids were seven and five. Bridget and Bill were to have access to the children during his incarceration, neighbours and friends said.

Not long after Caleb was jailed, in mid-April, Bill was found dead in the family home. The death was sudden and unexplained. An official cause was never determined, according to police, but there was nothing to suggest it was suspicious at the time. People figured he had an aneurysm or a heart attack.

Soon after Bill's death, when Caleb was still in jail, Merritt disappeared with the children. Bridget was devastated. "It was a long, tough time for the family, " Frise said.

Posters with photos of the two kids, their mother and her boyfriend were distributed by missing children's groups. Merritt had by that time given birth to a third child with her new partner, Christopher Fattore, and was pregnant with a fourth.

Merritt returned to Mississauga after several months and was charged with parental abduction. She was convicted and in June 2010 received a 15-month conditional sentence and 18 months' probation, according to court records. She did not serve time in jail.

Merritt lost access to the children she had with Caleb for several months after the abduction, according to court records, but has since been granted regular visitation privileges, though Caleb had sole custody.

From November 2009 until last week, the children lived in the Harrison family home on Pitch Pine Cres.

Bridget's death

Bridget's body was discovered on April 21, 2010, by her grandson, the elder of Caleb's two children.

She died within a week of the first anniversary of her husband's death. Her 8-year-old grandson came home from school that day and found his Nana at the bottom of a staircase on the main floor, within feet of where Bill died, according to neighbours. Police would not confirm this detail. Bridget's death was classified as suspicious.

"There was all kinds of speculation, " said Larry Sturino, who lives down the street from the Harrison home. "Did she fall down the stairs or was she pushed? Who knows?

"Of course you wait for the police report and nothing came out, so we assumed it was an accident and that was it."

The investigation was never closed, but before last week there was no active team working on it, police said.

After the remaining Harrisons dealt with Bridget's unexplained death, normal life resumed for a few years. Caleb was in a relationship with a woman from the Orangeville area who has two children of her own. Despite Caleb's dark past, people who knew him well described him as a devoted father and a good person - which was especially true, they said, after "his trouble." He worked at a small electronics company and raised his kids in the childhood home. His ex-wife took the kids every second weekend and they shared holidays.

Merritt, who now has six children, including the two with Caleb, moved into a rented farmhouse in Stratford with her common-law husband, Fattore, where the family lived happily, according to her Facebook page. Her profile picture on the social media network is an image of a sign that reads "Life is better on the farm."

One night in March last year, the farmhouse burned to the ground. Merritt, Fattore and the kids escaped unharmed. It is not clear whether the children from her marriage with Caleb were in the house at the time. According to an article published in the Stratford Gazette, the family lost all of their belongings and moved from hotel to hotel for months. A benefit concert was held at The Hideout, a bar in Toronto, and the family accepted donations through a fundraising website.

The Merritt-Fattore family eventually moved into a rented townhouse in Mississauga, and again, normal life resumed.

"I know the kids have a good relationship with their mom, " said Vera McCallum, a neighbour of Caleb's on Pitch Pine Cres. "They seem to really love her and have fun with her."

Court records show Merritt filed a motion last month to request a change in the custody arrangement with Caleb, asking that they split time with their two kids equally. She argued the proposed arrangement would be "practical and reasonable and overall in the children's best interest." A response had not been filed in court by the time Caleb died.

Merritt did not respond to interview requests for this story. Her father, Michael Merritt, said when reached at his home in Mississauga that he would not allow his daughter to talk to the media. "There's no reason for her to be involved in this, " he said.

The father became angry when asked about his daughter's abduction conviction, which a reporter described as part of the Harrison family's history. His response: "The family has a s---ty history, and it's all in the paper already. And it's him."

Caleb's death

On the evening of Thursday, Aug. 22, one of Caleb's children had a baseball game at Eringate Park. His ex-wife brought the two kids, who were with her for summer visitation. Caleb, who coached the team, was at the field, too.

Caleb was seen leaving the park at about 8:30 p.m. in a green Mustang that used to belong to his father, according to police. Neighbours remember seeing his car in the driveway shortly after 9 p.m. The kids stayed with their mother that night.

When Caleb didn't show up for work the next morning, a colleague stopped by the house to check on him. He was dead.

Police have not released information about where Caleb was found or how he was killed. There were some obvious signs of trauma, according to Det. Sgt. Cowan, but his death was initially deemed "suspicious" and was only declared a homicide after autopsy results came in.

The children, police said, are now with their mother. "We are talking on a constant basis with his family, extended family and his ex-wife, " Cowan said.

Police cars and forensic vans have been parked outside 3635 Pitch Pine Cres. all week, with investigators carrying boxes and bags into and out of the house. It has been a constant reminder, for neighbours, of the unlikely fate of the Harrison family.

"Everybody's just concerned for the kids, " said McCallum, who lives across the street from the Harrison home and knew the family well. "Those of us who've been around for years know what they've already been through ...they've had way too much for their very young lives."

Frise, the friend and colleague of Caleb's mother, was blown away to learn that a third Harrison had died.

"Aside from the sadness and the shock, there's the horror, " he said. "It's almost something that I can't absorb and put words to."

"It's pretty hard, " Frise said, "to put it down to coincidence."

With files from Robin Levinson, the Mississauga News and Toronto Star archive s

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com